add_frame

Context: frames

Synopsis

Creates a frame.

Syntax

add_frame([id,] [attributes])
add_frame([id,] x1, y1, x2, y2 [,attributes])

Description

The function arguments.

Argument	Description
id	A ChipsId structure identifying the item.
x1, y1, x2, y2	The lower left (x1,y1) and upper right (x2,y2) corners of the frame in window normalized coordinates.
attributes	Configure object properties by giving an attribute string (a space-separated list of key=value pairs), list, dictionary, or a ChIPS object.

The add_frame command creates a frame whose attributes are specified by user preferences or in an attribute list. The new frame becomes current by default; providing a ChipsId overrides the currency state.

The frame takes up the full size of the window in which it is created, unless the corner values (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) are supplied.

Customizing the Frame

There are several attributes that control the frame characteristics. The attributes can be set to the ChIPS defaults, values provided in the add_frame command, or values from the user's preference file.

The attributes may also be modified with the set_frame command at any time; see "ahelp set_frame" and "ahelp setget" for more information.

Please see the section "Frame Preferences and Attributes" below the examples for a list of the frame preferences.

Examples

Example 1

chips> add_frame()

Add a frame that fills the window. If no ChIPS window exists then one will be created automatically.

Example 2

chips> add_frame(["bgcolor", "red"])
chips> add_frame(0.1, 0.1, 0.4, 0.7, "bgcolor=blue")

The first call creates a frame that fills the whole window and sets its background color to red. The second call creates a frame with the lower left corner at (0.1,0.1) and the upper right corner at (0.4,.7), with a background color of blue.

Example 3

chips> add_window(300, 500, "mm", "id=MM300500")
chips> add_window(4, 4, "inches", "id=Window2")
chips> id = ChipsId()
chips> id.window = "MM300500"
chips> add_frame(id)

Use the ChipsId structure to indicate to which window the new frame should be added.

Example 4

chips> frm = ChipsFrame()
chips> frm.transparency = True
chips> add_frame(frm)

Populate the "frm" structure with the attribute values, then add a frame.

Frame Preferences and Attributes

The attributes associated with frames are given in the following table, where the "Set?" column refers to whether the attribute can be changed using the set_frame() command. To change the frame preference settings prepend "frame." to the attribute name.

Attribute	Description	Options	Default	Set?
aspect	Maintain the aspect ration of the frame when changing tiling modes?	see the Booleans section of "ahelp chipsopt"	true	Yes
bgcolor	Background color of the frame.	name or hex; see the Color section of "ahelp chipsopt"	default	Yes
border.color	Color of the border denoting the location of a frame in the window.	name or hex; see the Color section of "ahelp chipsopt"	default	Yes
border.visible	Boolean flag indicating if the frame border should be visible.	see the Booleans section of "ahelp chipsopt"	false	Yes
mode	how the frame is displayed in the window	placed or single	placed	No
scale	If set to true, all labels inside a window are rescaled as the window size is altered.	see the Booleans section of "ahelp chipsopt"	true	Yes
stem	Default stem for newly created frames	An alpha-numeric character sequence that does not contain a space	frm	No
transparency	Boolean flag indicating whether any object behind the frame is visible.	see the Booleans section of "ahelp chipsopt"	false	Yes

Bugs

See the bugs pages on the ChIPS website for an up-to-date listing of known bugs.